Sitting In The Aisle: Shazam

Shazam 8 ½/10

There will be spoilers. Shazam was a damn fun ass movie! I was trying to figure out the last time I watched a live action superhero movie that was this fun and I think the closest to it is Spiderman: Homecoming but this was even more fun. I do not know a ton about Shazam but I know basic information. I know his name, his alter ego, and that he gets adopted. I liked this because I could not sit in the theater and compare how it was different from the comic or not. This starts off in 1974 when this kid Thaddeus Sivana, his older brother, and dad are riding in a car. The father and brother all all up in the kids ass making fun of him when suddenly his family vanishes and the car gets covered in ice. He gets out and ends up in a cave with this wizard who is not even close to nice. He seems fed up which I get because he has been looking for a champion for centuries. The last one didn't turn out so well. So this kid is close to becoming Shazam when he starts listening to these whispering voices from the seven deadly sins. The wizard is like “Ah, fuck outta here!” and the kid wakes in the car and they end up spinning out and hit. The kid gets all the blame for this.

Meanwhile in the present day, Billy Batson is looking for his mother. When he was little he got lost at a carnival and has been running away from foster homes since. He gets put with this family and they seem really nice. His roommate Freddy is a little too much but means well. Let me say before I continue: I didn't hate any of these kids. I don't know how the hell they pulled this off but I actually liked every single one of these kids. 

There is Mary about to head to college but does not wanna leave her family, Pedro who barely ever talks, Eugene who is smart and loves video games, Darla the youngest, and Freddy who loves superheroes. One day after protecting Freddy from these asshole bullies Billy runs onto a subway and ends up transported to the wizard. He straight up tells the wizard he is not the right person for the job and there are no good people left. The wizard ain't got time for that bullshit and makes Billy into Shazam. He sneaks back home to let Freddy know what has happened and they begin to figure out what powers he actually has.

I liked this because it is exactly what you would do if you were made into a superhero with no manual. He does not now if he can fly, is bulletproof, if he has psychic powers, or if he can teleport. Hell, he doesn't even know how to turn back to normal or how to take a piss in the outfit. Freddy and Billy start figuring out ways to make money using the powers like exploding ATM machines. While all this is happening the foster kids find a notebook that Billy had where he is trying to find out where his mother is.

Sivana, the kid who is now an angry ass man, is gathering information about the wizard he saw as a child. It appears that the wizard was doing a magical form of spamming and trying to find a new Shazam and eventually Sivana ends up getting the right pattern to enter the magic realm. He gets that evil ball that he reached for as a child and ends up beating the wizards ass and being possessed by the deadly sins. He heads to his fathers office and unleashes actual hell on him, who was paralyzed by that car wreck from decades ago, and his brother. He is now hunting the “champion” aka Billy. By the way, he is never called Shazam. He gets all kinda names in the media and from Freddy. They post videos online and he is pretty easy to find.

The movie starts to take some turns after Billy gets sick of Freddy trying to use Shazam to make himself popular. When Billy and Sivana get into a fight Billy gets his ass kicked. He is cocky and ends up getting beaten from one end of the city to the other. Even Sivana calls him a coward for running away like he did. Sivana ends up tracking down Billy's new family and holds them hostage to get Billy to relinquish his powers. They end up escaping and an insane ass battle ensues where something happens that I did not think would happen in this movie. I know it is a thing in the comics but seriously did not think that they would have the balls to put it into this and I actually said “Yes!” when it happened.

This was a cool and fun ass movie. While the dialogue was not the best I have ever heard it felt fine for this. And again...I actually loved the kids in this. This movie had the perfect amount of humor in it and managed to have some really emotional scenes in it. It was a very difficult balancing act and they did a good job with this. Love that Billy is nothing like I thought he'd be and there is nothing shady about the adoptive parents. Are there demonic monsters that eat people? Yes. The CGI is shaky at times but it fits with this movie. I wish the monsters were in costumes or something instead of CGI because they did not look all that good especially when they were touching other characters. The last scene of the movie made me crack up laughing and there are two extra scenes at the end. This is a good introductory superhero film for someone who does not watch many of them and you don't need to know the character beforehand to enjoy it. I hope that DC starts to have more fun with their movies now. Even five years ago (click here to read that) I was most excited to see this one.

Asher Angel and Zachary Levi as Billy Batson/Shazam

Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana

Jack Dylan Grazer as Frederick “Freddy” Freeman

Djimon Hounsou as Shazam

Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley

Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield

Ian Chen as Eugene Choi

Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña

Marta Milans as Rosa Vasquez

Cooper Andrews as Victor Vasquez

Click here for previous Sitting In The Aisle.